In Between
by The15thDoor
Summary: Fate has a funny was of messing with Anzu's life. When her parents leave for a business trip, Anzu finds herself stuck with an older tyrannical cousin. On top of all of that, she's now stuck between two or should she say three, men? MOVED.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of it's characters.

**Author:** Makarios

**Title:** In Between

**Summary:** Fate has a funny was of messing with Anzu's life. With a pair of distant and un-concerning parents, going away on a business trip, Anzu finds herself stuck with an older tyrannical cousin who wants nothing to do with her. On top of all of that, she's balancing school, work, and dance lessons when she slowly begins to realize that she's caught in between two, or should she say three? men. What's a girl to do?

**A/N:** Even though I'm using the name Anzu instead of Tea in this fanfic, I'm keeping everyone else with their English dubbed names. Why? One, Anzu just sounds better and two, I'm too lazy to type out all the Japanese names. XD

Enjoy.

--

School had just stared up again after the short month break. It didn't seem like a long time, a month, but friends now found themselves separated and drifting away from each other with the coming of their new assigned home rooms. New clicks, new clubs, new acquaintances lead everyone in different directions.

Not everything completely changed over the short resting period though. Every morning a group of four friends would be found congregated around one of the classroom desks. In this group you would find: Yugi the soft, yet strong leader, Joey the loud, but trustworthy sidekick, Tristan, the stubborn pillar of strength and Anzu the glue that held them all together. And like always, it was the same schedule every day for the four. Yugi, Joey and Tristan would head off to the Turtle Game Shop after school while Anzu balanced a job followed closely by dance lessons later in the evening.

No one really realized it though, that Fate had a funny way of playing around with this particular group of friends. As it was, Fate was getting ready to stir up trouble once more, and this time it would come crashing down on the world of the only female of the group.

You'd think that with all that she's gone through with friends that she would be used to it by now.

--

It was late Friday night when Anzu found herself walking home. The day was long and hard for her as a while ago she got off of her shift of work at the Domino Mall. Not being the one to waste the time, or the opportunity, Anzu rushed over to the local dance studio, which was _conveniently_ located ten blocks away from the mall, to work on her dance routine. She was thankful for the generous instructors at the studio who understood her schedule and had allowed her to stay at much later hours to practice her moves.

After Anzu deemed that her routine was adequate for the night, she packed up her belongings and began to walk the long trek, which was another twenty blocks back the _other_ direction, to home. She was sore, the least to say, the first night that she started this new regimen. The first couple of nights were the hardest, as she would be too weak and exhausted to walk up the stairs of her parent's home to her bedroom, so often she just collapsed on the living room couch. Come the next morning, she would silently curse herself and her aching body, as she raced to take a shower and then make it to school before she was late.

She was getting better though. Two weeks later she was able to actually get up the stairs to her bedroom and successfully set her alarm clock before she quickly passed out on her bed, still dressed in her full attire. Another week and she was finally able to come home, eat a quick snack before going up to her room, changing and then quietly falling into a peaceful slumber.

On the way home from the dance studio one night, Anzu was lost in her thought over her last dance rehearsal. There were still some small kinks that she needed to work out, and come tomorrow she decided that she was going to stay a little later to fix them. So while she was walking home through the business district of Domino, it never crossed her mind that she walked past the Kaiba Corp. building every night.

Passing in front of the main doors of the large building, Anzu was suddenly jostled out of her thoughts when she ran into a soft but sturdy form and proceeded to stumble back a few steps.

"Watch where you're walking Mazaki." sneered a deep voice.

Rubbing her now sore nose, Anzu looked up to see the one and only Seto Kaiba glaring down on her.

"Oh sorry Kaiba. I was thinking about something and didn't see you there." she said apologetically.

"You know Mazaki, they don't _always_ mean that you have to think before you act." he said smirking at her before he proceeded to walk towards his awaiting limo.

'_Why that lousy jerk!_' Anzu huffed before turning away and continuing her walk home. _'Who the Hell does he think he is saying that to me? It wasn't completely my fault. He could have moved out of the way or something.' _

It was the next night that Anzu found herself consciously aware of where she was when she walked home through the business district this time. The bright lights from the Kaiba Corp. building were all but on when Anzu approached the structure. Walking towards the complex, Anzu realized that the lobby lights were on and there was a figure walking out the main doors.

Realizing who it was, Anzu glared at Kaiba before standing up straighter and picking up her pace. They crossed their paths, not saying a word to the other and Anzu thought that for once Kaiba was going to keep his comments to himself.

"Should I take your silence as you keeping your mouth shut or you not being able to think of anything witty to say?" his words sliced through the air.

Anzu spun around was just about to reply, (she _did_ have a witty remark, she was just waiting for him to say something first) but found that Kaiba was already in his limo and was driving away.

"Oh! I hate him!" Anzu yelled as she threw her bags on the ground huffing.

It went on like this constantly. Every night Anzu would walk by the Kaiba Corp. building where she would cross paths with Kaiba himself. They would exchange snide remarks, and then go there separate ways as if nothing ever happened.

So after a particularly nasty run-in the two had had, Anzu got home half an hour later than usual. By the time she was dressed in her pajamas and was drifting quietly in bed, all thoughts of Kaiba that had plagued her mind earlier left and were replaced as she imagined how sweet it was going to be to savior sleeping in tomorrow on this, most definitely needed weekend.

--

Anzu groggily stepped down the stairs late the next morning to find clinking and clacking sounds coming from the kitchen. Rubbing the sleepies (A/N: Yes, I do call them sleepies) from her eyes, she was surprised to be greeted with the sight of her parents sitting comfortably in the kitchen. Her mother was over at the stove cooking, while her father was sitting silently at the table reading the morning paper while drinking a cup of coffee.

"Mom? Dad? What are you guys doing here? I thought you were on a business trip in America?" Anzu said as she came to sit across from her father.

"Why Anzu darling, there you are! We were wondering when you were going to come down." Her mother cheerfully said as she turned around to see her still half-asleep daughter. "We came home early from our last trip. We didn't tell you that we were coming home because we wanted it to be a surprise. But by the time we got in, it was already late and you were already in bed." her mother explained.

"Awww, you guys should have woken me up anyways." Anzu pouted.

"We tried to." her father said folding the paper so she could see his face. "But you were out cold, and by the looks of it, you weren't going to let anything wake up you."

"Here honey." Anzu's mother said as she set a plate of food down in front of her "Eat up."

"Thanks mom." Anzu said gratefully as she dug into her meal.

Something was up though, Anzu could just feel the anticipation hanging in the air. Her parents usually didn't act like this often. All warm and welcoming. It wasn't that her parents hated her, or she them, it's just they were always too buys to deal with Anzu and her life. Now that she was old enough, her parents saw this as a chance to branch out a bit more with their company. Most of the time, the two of them would be gone for a short month or maybe two at the longest while they left Anzu at home. But it was usually at time like these that Anzu realized that her parents were trying to suck up to her before they let her in on some big news or plans that they had coming up. And when this happened, Anzu often found that her aunt and uncle usually volunteered to come over and watch Anzu along with the house, for her parents would be gone for uncertain periods of time.

Not wanting to beat around the bush, Anzu put down her fork. "So how long and where are you guys going to this time?" she questioned.

Both of her parents abruptly stopped what they were both doing. Her father's cup of coffee was mid-air and her mother froze from what she was doing over at the stove.

"Anzu honey, it's not that we want to go..." her father began.

"I know dad. I just wish that you guys would just tell me what's happening with you instead of keeping me in the dark all of the time." Anzu picked up her fork and pushed the food around her plate.

"Well sweety," her mother said as she sat down beside Anzu, "we're going to be going back over to America for a while." she said getting straight to the point.

"So what's new with that? You guys just got back from America. If you're going to go back, then why didn't you just stay there longer?." Anzu went back to her eating her breakfast.

"It's big this time Anzu." her father said as he sat down his paper and began to eat his own food. "We were speaking with some contractors over in the States and they said that they wanted to try expand our company to overseas. They were very interested in our products and were wondering what we thought of the idea."

"Okay, so how long are you guys going to be gone?" Anzu pressed.

"Ahhh, that's why we wanted to come home for a little bit." her father continued "We don't know how long this is going to take, but we're estimating somewhere to be close to a full year."

"What?! A full year?!" Anzu shrieked.

"I know honey, it seems like it's a long time. But we really want to do this." her mother said putting an arm around Anzu's shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

Anzu sighed in disbelief. _'I can't believe this. Almost a full year?'_

"So are aunt Rima and uncle Shiki coming over to stay for a full year then?"

"Ah, you see, your aunt and uncle can't make it this time. They called a week back and said that they were going on a cruise in the Bahamas." her mother stated.

Anzu was confused now. "Okay... so who is coming over then? Unless you guys are letting me stay alone for a whole year... Are you?"

"No, no, no." her father quickly stated. Her father quickly glanced at her before going back to his food. "Your older cousin Ruka is coming over to watch you."

Dear God help her. Her older cousin Ruka. Anzu shuddered at the thought of her cousin coming to live here, in her house, bossing her around for a full year. Anzu was positive that by now there was somebody upstairs who truly hated her and wanted to make her life a living Hell.

"Oh it won't be too bad." her mother gestured with a few waves of her hand. "You're cousin kindly offered to come over. She said she would be happy to."

'_Happy my ass.'_ Anzu glared at her plate of food. _'She just jumped at the opportunity to live and sleep somewhere for free.' _

"When are you guys leaving?" she asked her hands now clenched in her lap.

"Regrettably, we have to leave tonight." said her father.

Of course they did. This is what they did to her every time the left. Come home, stay for a day or two, and then leave again that very night. Sometimes Anzu wondered if her parents even liked coming home at all.

"I'm not hungry anymore." Anzu said suddenly standing up.

"Honey are you sure." her mother asked.

Anzu plastered a fake smile on her face. "Don't worry mom. I've just got a lot of homework to get done today. I want to get it finished so I can be free Sunday."

"Well okay..." her mother's voice trailed off.

'_This is unfair.'_ Anzu thought as she quickly jogged up the stairs to her room before shutting the door behind her quietly.

--

It was Monday morning when Anzu found herself riding the city bus to school. Still feeling a bit emotionally drained from her weekend, she closed her eyes and thought about what had happened over the past few days.

Later that Saturday night, Anzu emerged from her room after spending all day upstairs. She wasn't lying when she said she had homework to do. She had several different assignments from different classes that demanded her full attention. So when she came down the stairs, she realized that it was already in the later afternoon. There were traces of oranges hues everywhere from the setting sun that filled up the quiet house as Anzu made her way towards the kitchen.

Not surprised to see that her parents weren't around, and their car gone from the front driveway, Anzu guided herself over to the fridge to grab a bite to eat. It was only then when she turned around that she noticed the sterile white envelop sitting on the kitchen counter with a small note beside it. Picking up the envelope, Anzu opened it and let out a quite gasp of surprise upon seeing the large stack of bills upon bills of money safely tucked away inside. She quickly rifled through the stack of money and was even more surprised to find several more credit cards in the back, all with her name on them.

Setting the envelop down, Anzu picked up and read the note.

_Anzu,_

_Sorry we left without a word of goodbye, we got a call earlier that our flight had been changed and we had to leave as soon as possible. If you have, or haven't, noticed already, we left you some funds incase of emergency or anything that you may need. No need to worry about the house bills, those are already taken care of._

_With much love,_

_Mom & Dad_

_P.S: you cousin will be moving in on Monday while you're at school._

Anzu came back to her present thoughts when she noticed that the bus had come to her stop only a block away from her school. Getting off she grimaced at the thought of her cousin moving into her house with her not there. It was a good thing that she decided to hide all that money too.

"Hello there Anzu." a voice to her right suddenly said.

"Oh Ryou!" Anzu said as she put a hand on her chest. "You scared me."

"My apologies. So how was you weekend?" Ryou asked kindly.

"Oh, it could have been better." Anzu said as she was assaulted with thoughts of her cousin again. "How was yours?" she asked, quickly trying to change the subject.

"I could say the same as you." he replied coughing and looking away.

"Ryou? Are you okay?" Anzu asked putting a hand on his arm.

When he quickly flinched away, Anzu's eyes narrowed and she grabbed Ryou's other uninjured arm before pulling him into a nearby alley between two shops before stopping and turning to face him.

"Tell me what happened." she demanded looking him straight in the eyes.

"It's nothing really." Ryou said trying to walk away.

"Oh no you don't." she said grabbing him and pulling him back into the alley. It didn't go unnoticed either that he flinched at her touch again. "I'm not stupid Ryou." her eyes softened while looking at him. "Please tell me what happened. You're my friend. I want to help you."

Looking at her Ryou sighed and set down his school case. _'I'll never be able to escape her now.'_ he thought. _'Not that I'd ever want to...' _

Pulling back the sleeve of his uniform, Ryou showed Anzu the angry bruise that marred most of his arm.

"Oh my God, Ryou... how did this happen?" Anzu said as she gently grabbed his arm to inspect the mark.

"Well, it wasn't exactly my doing." Ryou said slowly.

Anzu's eyes quickly snapped over to him. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." Ryou trailed off.

Anzu's eyes suddenly widened in surprise. "Bakura did this?" she asked. "How? And why?"

Ryou shifted his eyes out towards the busy street to see several of their schoolmates walking by. "Well you see ah... he went on a little outing this weekend and he, uh... almost got caught."

A sudden anger filled Anzu. "Let me talk to him."

Ryou's head whipped back to hers. "Beg pardon?"

"You heard what I said. Let me talk to Bakura." Anzu said looking directly at him.

Anzu noticed two things simultaneously happen at once. One, the features on Ryou's face suddenly became more angular and sharper and his eyes became more slanted. Two, Ryou's free hand grabbed Anzu's hand that was holding up his injured arm, and seized it into a painful grasp.

"And what does the Pharaoh's _whore_ want with me?"

Neither of them realized what had happened when Anzu's free hand came up and slapped Bakura clean across the side of his face. Bakura staggered back before grabbing both of Anzu's hands and spinning her around with her back pressed firmly again his chest and him successfully pinning her arms to her sides with one hand wrapped around her waist, while the other securely wrapped itself around her throat.

--

**A/N:** Annnnnnd that's all that I have for this first chapter. Boy this one took me along time to type up. Oh! And a cookie goes out to whomever knows which anime/manga that I bit that aunt, uncles, and cousin's name from. Haha, I wonder who will get it first? Well, I hope that I'll be able to update this story as much as I can before my muse takes off on me again. TT

Until next time!

_Makarios_


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of it's characters.

**Author:** Makarios

**Title:** In Between

**Summary:** Fate has a funny way of messing with Anzu's life. With a pair of distant and un-concerning parents, going away on a business trip, Anzu finds herself stuck with an older tyrannical cousin who wants nothing to do with her. On top of all of that, she's balancing school, work, and dance lessons when she slowly begins to realize that she's caught in between two, or should she say three? men. What's a girl to do?

**A/N: **So here's the second chapter. Phew, I finally got around to typing it up. That usually happens when I type up my stories. I spend a really long time writing them, and once I put them on the net, I let them sit for a while before I decide to write up the next chapter. Oh, and I also decided that I'm going to start the chapters from now on with a little snippet from the last chapter. I just wanted to say this because I was reading the end of the first chapter and I wanted to change it around a bit, but I'm just going to do it in this chapter instead of going back and changing the first chapter. But anyways, thank you **Rikkamaru**, **a silent thunder**, and **Minou1992** for the reviews! And since _Minou1992_ guessed who the aunt, uncle and cousin were from, they win the cookie! Congrats dear. (P.S: thanks for seeing my grammar mistakes XP) Now onward with the next chapter!

Enjoy.

--

"And what does the Pharaoh's _whore _want with me?"

Neither of them realized what had happened when Anzu's free hand came up and slapped Bakura clean across the side of his face. Bakura staggered back before launching himself at her, grabbing both of Anzu's hands and spinning her around with her back pressed firmly against hist chest and him successfully pinning her arms to her sides with one hand wrapped around her waist, while the other securely wrapped itself around her throat.

"Let go of me!" Anzu struggled against his grasp.

"I don't think so." Bakura said tightening his grip around her a bit more. "Now tell me," he purred against her ear, "why do you seek me out?"

Anzu was glad that Bakura couldn't see the blush that flamed across her face when she felt his breath on her ear.

"Let me go first and then I'll tell you what I wanted to talk to you about." she bartered with him

"I'm not too sure I want to let you go." Bakura said as he pulled her closer to his body. "I quite like the position that we are in."

Anzu felt him smirking into her hair and her blush increased tenfold. _'This asshole is enjoying this!'_ she struggled to get out of his grasp again. _'Damn ancient-piece-of-shit-thief! Alright Anzu, calm down now. Think you way out of this.' _

"Bakura, let me go. People are going to realize that we're missing. My friends will come looking for me. And then they'll realized that Ryou is gone too." Anzu reasoned.

It was silent for a bit and Anzu wondered if Bakura had heard her at all. She noticed that the grip on her waist slackened a moment, but it quickly tightened back up again.

"If I let you go, you will answer all of my questions." Bakura demanded, not asked.

"Alright." Anzu quickly agreed.

His grip around her loosened until she was free from his grasp and Anzu quickly spun around and put as much distance between her and the tomb robber as she could in the small dirty alleyway.

"Now," Bakura said taking a step forward. "speak up. What is it you wanted to _'talk'_ to me about?"

Coughing slightly, Anzu nervously said, "So, what did you do this weekend that caused Ryou to get that nasty bruise on his arm?"

"You heard what my pathetic light had said earlier." Bakura stated now glaring down on Anzu.

'_He was listening the whole time?'_ Anzu quickly shook the thought from her mind.

"So I did." feeling a bit braver she said, "You need to stop all this stupid stealing nonsense. You're going to get Ryou killed."

Anzu gasped when Bakura rushed towards her and slammed his hands on either side of the wall behind Anzu's head, effectively trapping her in place.

"Why do you care?" he barked. "It's none of you business!"

"It is my business when it involves my friends." Anzu growled back.

"Stay out of it woman. This doesn't concern you at all."

"Concern? Of course it concerns me! It's your fault that Ryou is getting hurt in the first place. And I hardly doubt that Ryou likes you going out and doing your, 'activities' anyways. Look at what you're doing to him!" she yelled as she reached up and yanked back the sleeve of his sweater to show the dark bruise. "I doubt that Ryou likes waking up to seeing these in the morning."

After her rant, it was then that Anzu realized just what she had exactly said. She tried to shrink back further into the wall as Bakura closed the space between them with a furious look on his face.

"I can do whatever I _please_!" Bakura snarled in her face. "What are you, some little girl, to tell me what to do!?"

"But you almost got caught!" she countered.

"Tch." Bakura looked away briefly. "A small miscalculation."

"Right." Anzu said feeling brave again. "Look, it's not like you can keep it up anyways. In this century we have technology that is highly more advanced than what they had back in ancient Egypt." she said making her point.

Bakura turned his gaze back to Anzu and looked her directly in the eyes. He stayed like that for a bit and Anzu turned her head away, beginning to feel uncomfortable under his heavy gaze.

"I believe," Bakura began as he grabbed Anzu's chin, turning her face back to him to she his growing smirk, "that you just solved my problem my dear."

Anzu looked bewildered and Bakura chuckled at the look on her face before bringing his mouth back to her ear again. "Let's keep this conversation between just the two of us, **Anzu**."

A blush flamed across Anzu's face once again and Bakura stepped back to put some space between them. Looking up at him, Anzu realized that it was no longer Bakura that she was looking at, but an equally shocked Ryou.

"What just happened?" he asked.

"I'm not too sure myself..." Anzu replied.

--

It was another late night when Anzu found herself turning the corner on the street that lead to her home. Another tiring day at work followed by dance practice had Anzu exhausted, and the little nightly run in with Kaiba didn't help much either. The events that played across this morning still mingled with her thoughts all day long though. Anzu silently cursed to herself as she felt her face heating up once more.

"Stupid tomb robber messing with my mind like that..." she mumbled as she looked down at the sidewalk.

As she walked in front of her neighbor's house, she looked up at her own home to see that all the lights were on, loud music could be heard from even where she was and numerous cars were littered everywhere on the street.

Surprised, she rushed forward a bit, but that was before she noticed the red convertible sitting in the driveway. It hit her suddenly and Anzu slumped down and let her bags fall to the ground as she remember that her cousin had moved in today and by the looks of things, she had already made herself comfortable.

Sighing, Anzu picked up her bags and made her way towards the blaring house. Several people were standing outside on the lawn with plastic cups in their hands, and it didn't take Anzu long to figure out that her cousin had thrown herself a house warming party.

Anzu stopped when she was on her doorstep and took a deep breath. _'This is stupid! I shouldn't be nervous about going into my own house!'_ Sucking in another deep breath, she grabbed the door knob and pushed the door open.

She was immediately assaulted with the sight of people crowded everywhere. Anzu could tell that most to all of the people here were an easy five to six years older than herself. Weaving her way through the crowds of people, Anzu maneuvered herself into the kitchen. The kitchen was a complete disaster in itself, plastic cups were everywhere numerous people were sitting on the counter-tops and a heavy wave of smoke clouded the top of the ceiling. Disgusted, Anzu turned around to leave the kitchen but stopped short when she felt herself almost slip and fall. She caught herself before she could do so, and looked down at, _whatever_ it was and scrunched up her face at the sight of the floor.

Leaving the kitchen she made her way to the living room where, if it was even possible, more people were crowded. Walking in, she heard a catcall tossed at her and she looked over to see some guy with his group of friends eying her up and down like a piece of meat. Shocked, she quickly stumbled away through the crowds and finally broke through but to only find herself in the midst of the loud offending music.

Covering her ears and scrunching her eye shut, Anzu tried to calm herself down.

"Hey everyone, look who it is! It's Anzu!" a voice suddenly shouted.

Anzu snapped her eyes open and tried to find the voice. She searched the room and was surprised when her eyes spotted her cousin lounging casually in some random guy's lap as he himself sat in her father's reading chair.

'_Oh dear God, she's drunk.'_ Anzu thought as she watched her cousin stumble out of the guy's lap and made her way over to her. _'I guess is should be thankful, this is probably the only time in her life that she's ever nice to me.'_

Anzu plastered a fake smile on her face when her cousin's drunken form slammed into her own, almost knocking both of them over in the process.

"Anzu, kid! How have you been?" her cousin said through slurred words. "Dang girl you've grown up since the last time I saw you! Just look at yourself, killer body and a nice rack too!" her cousin practically yelled making several heads whip towards their direction.

"Thanks Ruka." Anzu mumbled looking down at her shoes.

"Come on girl have a drink." her cousin shouted as she slung he arm around Anzu's shoulders and grabbed a nearby girl's drink. The girl that Ruka took the drink from went to protest, but once she turned around and saw who it was, her eyes widened and she scampered away at the sight of Ruka's glare.

Yeah, her cousin had that kind of effect on people. Especially other girls.

"But I'm underage." Anzu protested as she was handed the drink.

"Not tonight you aren't!" Ruka shouted as she took another slam of her own drink.

"Look Ruka," Anzu shouted in her cousin's ear over the music. "I'm going to go crash. I had a long day today."

"Alright little cuz, but you're missin' out!"

Before Anzu could say anything else to her cousin, Ruka stumbled away through the waves of people. Not passing up on the only chance of seeing her cousin this nice again, Anzu practically ran upstairs to her bedroom and yanked the door open. She stopped though, horrified to see two strangers sitting on her bed making out.

"Get out of my room!" Anzu shouted at the two as she threw her bags down.

Shocked, the two stranger scurried away and Anzu quickly slammed her door behind them. Not wasting any time, she picked up her bags, and tossed them onto her bed. She quickly went over to her dressing table and shoved the piece of furniture in front of her door. She opened her closet door too, just in case if anyone did get her door open, it would be stopped by her closet door.

Groaning, Anzu went over to her bed and collapsed, putting her head in her hands. How could her parents ever think that Ruka was the right person to come over while they were gone? She fell backwards on her bed and just lay there for some time.

'_There's no way I'm going to get any sleep tonight.'_ she thought as the music could be heard throughout the entire house. _'Ruka's going to be in a bad mood tomorrow morning.' _

--

Anzu woke the next morning to the sound of pounding on her bedroom door. Groaning, she rolled over in her bed to look at her alarm clock only to see that it said that it was 9:30 am.

'_9:30! How did I not her my alarm go off?!'_ Anzu thought as she jumped out of her bed.

Anzu noticed that she was still in her school uniform and realized that if she hurried she wouldn't miss much more of the day if she left for school right now.

"Anzu! Open this door night now and clean up this mess downstairs!" she heard Ruka yell from the other side of her door. "Anzu! I know you're in there!"

_'Crap! What should I do!?' _Anzu panicked. She could stay home and clean up the house, which Ruka would probably make her do by herself, or she could try to make it to school.

Choosing the later of the two, Anzu quickly changed into her spare uniform and then made her way towards her window.

"Anzu!" her cousin continued to yell from the other side of the door.

Halfway through her window, Anzu looked back at her door to see it still shaking from her cousin pounding her fists against the fragile wood. After a particularly loud pound, Anzu turned around and threw her bags out to the ground outside and proceed to jump out the window without a second thought.

Landing down, she fell backwards on her bottom and silently thanked her father for keeping their lawn in ment-condition. Standing up and rubbing her sore bottom, Anzu picked up her bags and quickly jogged away from her home.

--

It was late once again. But this time, it was later than usual for Anzu. Dreading the thought of going home, she stayed for a later time at work, offering to close the store up for one of her co-workers. She took as long as she possibly could walking over to the dance studio. She even went as far as to stay for an extra hour, despite her protesting legs.

So when she got home, she wasn't even two steps on her lawn when her cousin came charging out the front door straight towards her.

"Where the Hell were you all day?!" Ruka screamed in her face.

"I was at school." Anzu growled walking around her.

"Oh no you don't." Ruka said as she grabbed Anzu by her arm, wrenching her around to look her in the face.

"I'm just going up to my room!" Anzu yelled.

The harsh sound of a hand connecting with skin filled Anzu's ears as she stumbled backwards after Ruka's sudden attack. "You're going to go clean up that house. _Now_." Ruka growled.

"Why should I?" Anzu asked holding her cheek and looking shocked at her cousin.

"Because I said so!" Ruka screamed.

Startled and now scared, Anzu ran back into the house, making a bee-line for he room. Before she could even get to the stairs, a harsh hand came up and grabbed Anzu's hair yanking her down to the ground. Anzu cried out in surprise and had no chance to defend herself as she began to kick Anzu's side.

"You think you can run from me!?" Ruka screamed down at Anzu's broken form. "I'm your _fucking_ guardian now! From now on, you do what I say!"

Ruka's kicking spree briefly stopped and Anzu took the chance and used her own legs to kick the feet out from under Ruka; which sent her crashing to the ground. Jumping up, Anzu tried to runaway but Ruka grabbed one of her legs and pulled her back down to the ground again. She jumped on Anzu then, pulling wildly at anything she could grasp.

Anzu tried to fend her off, slapping and pulling at anything she could grab. She suddenly got hold of Ruka's shirt and yanked it off to the left, which successfully dragged Ruka along with it.

Rolling around onto her stomach, Anzu crawled away and saw a nearby lamp laying on the ground; most likely knocked over from yesterday night's party. Just as she grabbed hold of the object, Ruka grabbed her and was atop her again. In the spur of the moment, Anzu tightened her grasp on the lamp and then brought it down; bashing it on the side of her cousin's head.

Ruka dropped instantly and laid limp on Anzu. Anzu, not knowing really what to do, just lay there taking deep breaths as the adrenaline still pumped through her veins. A few more breaths and after calming herself down, Anzu rolled her cousin's form off of her. Quickly checking Ruka's pulse, Anzu sighed when she realized that she just knocked her out cold.

Standing up, Anzu ran upstairs to her bedroom, barley taking notice that the door was successfully off of it's hinges, and went to her closet and grabbed two large suitcases and throwing them open on her bed. She'd be damned if she was going to stay here now, there was now way in Hell that Ruka would let her; whenever she woke up that was.

Shoving most of her clothes in the two suitcases along with a pillow and a couple blankets, Anzu grabbed a duffel bag and went into the bathroom to throw in all of her necessities and any other valuable items that she would need. Running back into her bedroom, Anzu went into her closet an began to tare it apart.

'_Please still be here, please still be here... yes! It's sill here!'_ Anzu mentally cheered as she pulled out the envelop that held all the money that her parents gave her before they left.

Shoving the envelope into the pocket of the duffel bag, Anzu quickly changed into some casual clothing. After changing, she took the tow suitcases down stairs, ignoring her cousin's still form, Anzu walked through the still open front door and around her house to the shed in the back. She would have to store these two here until she could come back later for them. She was already tired and exhausted as it was, and now her stomach was starting to kill her.

Walking back inside, Anzu went back to her room and grabbed her duffel bag and threw it over her shoulder. Looking back a her room, she went over to her dresser and grabbed the picture of her parents and also the picture of her, Yugi, Joey and Tristan before throwing them into her bag and walking out of the room.

Going down the stairs, Anzu took one last glance at the house and realized that it was still in the same shape as it was yesterday; he cousin hadn't bothered to pick up at all. She was about to walk out the front door when her eye's caught Ruka's still form on the ground.

Sighing, Anzu set her bag on the ground._ 'Even I can't leave her there like that.'_ she thought as she went over to Ruka's still form.

Grabbing both of Ruka's arms, Anzu dragged the older girl over to the living room couch and with much effort, got her up onto the piece of furniture. _'This would have been easier if my stomach wasn't hurting me so much.' _Anzu winced at the pain in her abdomen and with a final shove, got Ruka onto the couch.

Coming to the front door, Anzu took on last glance at her cousin and her home before she shut the door behind her and walked out into the cold unknowing night.

--

**A/N:** So there's the second chapter. I actually wrote this quicker than I thought I would (four days, le gasp!). But don't worry all you SetoxAnzu fans out there, I'm going to start developing the story between those two in the next chapter, so rest easy. This chapter was just more about Anzu dealing with her cousin and what she's going to do now. Well that's it for now.

Until next time!

Makarios


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of it's characters.

**Author:** Makarios

**Title:** In Between

**Summary:** Fate has a funny way of messing with Anzu's life. With a pair of distant and un-concerning parents, going away on a business trip, Anzu finds herself stuck with an older tyrannical cousin who wants nothing to do with her. On top of all of that, she's balancing school, work, and dance lessons when she slowly begins to realize that she's caught in between two, or should she say three? men. What's a girl to do?

**A/N:** Gahhh! I probably would have had this chapter up a little sooner, but Thursday there was a really bad thunderstorm out where I live and it knocked my internet out for about four days. We called out internet provider to see what was wrong, but no one was there because it was the Fourth of July weekend. .:Dies:. Well, thanks to **Rikkamaru**, **DarkXSpades** and **Minou1992**(my goodness your review was long!) for the reviews! So here's the next chapter.

Enjoy.

--

Sighing, Anzu set her bag on the ground._ 'Even I can't leave her there like that.'_ she thought as she went over to Ruka's still form.

Grabbing both of Ruka's arms, Anzu dragged the older girl over to the living room couch and with much effort, got her up onto the piece of furniture. _'This would have been easier if my stomach wasn't hurting me so much.' _Anzu winced at the pain in her abdomen and with a final shove, got Ruka onto the couch.

Coming to the front door, Anzu took on last glance at her cousin and her home before she shut the door behind her and walked out into the cold unknowing night.

--

It was bright, Anzu suddenly realized, and warm too. From where she lay, Anzu could feel the sun's warm rays washing over her body and she recognized the oranges hues of the sun hitting her from behind her closed eyelids. She rolled over, thinking that she was still in her bed, but her body jerked into realization (A/N: you know how sometimes you jerk yourself awake when you have a weird dream? that's what I mean.) when she came crashing down on the unforgiving pavement beneath where she lay.

Surprised, her eyes shot open and Anzu looked around at her surroundings. She scanned the area and her eyes were met with the site of the Domino City Park. People were already walking around the area, enjoying the scenery and watching their kids play on a nearby playground, while other sat comfortably on benches that littered the serene surroundings around a grand fountain that could be found in the center of the enormous park.

And then it hit her. Like a ton of _fucking_ bricks.

Anzu groaned and sat up from where she fell, and looked behind and above her to see that she rolled off a wooden bench. Bringing her right hand to lay on her left shoulder, she took the moment to roll her left arm in an attempt to get the blood circulating in it again and to also try and get rid of the dull aching feeling.

When her left arm passed around in a small circle, the sun's rays were caught in the glass of her watch and it reflected the shinning light across Anzu's face which made her turn her attention towards the small piece of jewelry.

"Ahh. It's 10:17 already." she said as she checked the time. "Well, I know for a fact that I'm probably not going to go to school today." she said as she stood up only to sit back down on the bench before she reached down and grabbed the duffel bag that she brought with her last night as she ran out of her house.

'_That was the worst night of my life.'_ Anzu thought as she dug through the bag and ignored all the looks that passerbys were giving her.

After Anzu left her house last night, she had no idea where she was going to go. She immediately ruled out going to Yugi's, Joey's or Tristan's homes, for she didn't want to pull any of them into her own family business. She couldn't call her parents and explain to them what had happened for they were over seas doing business and she didn't want to bother them. And she couldn't rent a hotel room because she was too young even if she offered to pay up front with cash and also some interest.

So, she went to the only free lodging that she knew of. Domino City Park.

Sighing, Anzu stopped digging through her bag and stopped to think for a moment. _'What I gonna do!'_ she groaned and threw her head in her hands.

Sucking in a deep breath, she took her head out of her hands and Anzu looked up and watched all the people enjoying the park around her. _'This is it.'_ she decided with a new resolve as she stood up and gathered all of her bags. _'I'm all alone now, so I'm just going to have to take matters into my own hands.'_

Throwing her bags onto her shoulders, Anzu stood up straighter as she began to walk out of Domino Park with a new plan brewing in her mind.

--

Locking the front doors to her work behind her, Anzu stretched only to recurl a little at a slight pain in her stomach. Ignoring the irritating feeling, Anzu played over today's events in her mind. The day had went better than she thought it could have gone. After walking out of the park, Anzu realized that the first thing that she needed was a place to stay. So after grabbing a coffee at a nearby shop, along with that morning's news paper, Anzu sat down at an outside café and began to scan the pages for any open places that she could stay before circling a few that had caught her eye.

It was hard at first, she had to admit. Most of the places that she went to wouldn't accept her either because she was too young, or she had to have a credit history. So she was relieved when she found a small one bedroom apartment in the, not-so-much-greater side of Domino, but the landlord asked no questions about her or what she was doing trying to get a place for someone as young as herself. As long as she payed on time every month, he didn't care who lived in his complex. So with the money her parents left for her (she had quite more than enough there), she payed ahead, just to make sure that the landlord wouldn't have to worry about her at all. The landlord in question looked at her, and then back to the wad of cash that she just gave him and then shrugged. Like he said, he wouldn't ask any questions.

Smiling happily, Anzu thanked the landlord (she later found out that he was affectionately called Ichigo) as he handed her the key to her apartment before he grunted and went back to reading his newspaper.

Grabbing her bags, Anzu read the number on her key and realized that her room was on the third floor of the complex. Hauling up her bags to the third floor was an easy enough feat, and she found her new apartment with little difficulty.

Huffing after the small workout, Anzu remember that she also had the two suitcases that she had left over in the shed back in her parent's house. So after a twenty-five minute walk from her new apartment, Anzu made her way back to her old neighborhood. After jumping a few fences, and running though a few lawns, she made it to her house without anyone noticing that she was ever there. She didn't want her neighbors to unknowingly tell Ruka that they've seen her, so she had to be careful going about the situation. Now peeking over the fence from her neighbor's yard, Anzu sighed in relief when she saw that her cousin's red convertible wasn't in the driveway. Quickly running around the fence and into the backyard, she yanked open the shed doors and was glad to see that her two suitcases were still there, untouched.

Another forty minutes later (the walk took Anzu a bit longer with the two suitcases and her stomach was hurting again on top of all of it), Anzu found herself huffing and puffing as she dragged her two suitcases up the stairs of her new apartment. Unlocking the door to her new home, and throwing the two pieces in, Anzu shut the door behind her and slid down to the floor and looked at her new surroundings and sighed. Looking out the window, Anzu realized that it was getting late and she would have to leave for work sometime soon. Standing up, she made her way to her bathroom and quickly cleaned herself up before she grabbed a few items and ran out the door to go to work.

--

So on her walk home after work, Anzu was relieved to discover that her new trek home hadn't changed that much. They only part that had changed out of her routine was instead of going North to her parent's home, she found herself going South. She thought it was weird though, that her new apartment was on the same exact street that the old house was on, but it was just a good twenty-five minute walk down the other direction.

They only part that Anzu was a little disappointed about was she still had walk past the KC building to get home. So after the day's events; finding a new home and moving all over her belongings and not to mention missing school, Anzu wasn't really looking forward to having her daily run-in with Kaiba.

So just like always, Kaiba was right on time when the building's front doors finally came into Anzu's sight.

"Ditching school now Mazaki? I would have never thought." Kaiba remarked before the two were even relatively close to each other.

Ignoring his jibes, Anzu clenched her eyes shut when she felt a sudden pain in her abdomen._ 'This is different.'_ she thought as she put her hands on her stomach and gripped her shirt as another waive of pain washed through her._ 'Oh God! It hurts so bad!' _she mentally screamed.

So when she crashed into a solid form, Anzu fell. And this time, she fell _hard_. Not bothering to get up, she rolled over onto her side and clenched her stomach as a third wave of intense pain smashed through her again. After it subsided a bit, it was then that Anzu realized that she had run into Kaiba again, and this time he was chewing her out.

"...can't even watch where you going Mazaki! You'd think that you would have learned from the last time to look where you're going! Are you listening?!" he screamed at her as he found himself sitting up on his elbows after falling to the ground too. "What the Hell is wrong with you?!" he yelled as he took in her scrunched up form on the pavement.

"Shut up Kaiba!" Anzu screamed at him with tears now streaming down her face.

Shocked, Kaiba's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of Anzu as she pushed herself up to sit on her knees only to hunch over her stomach again and moan. Out of all the nights that the two had run in with each other, this was the first time that Anzu had raised her that high voice to him.

'_This is certainly a new development.'_ Seto thought as he watched Anzu try to stand up.

'_Ahhh! It hurts so much!'_ Anzu thought as she sucked in a deep breath of air which she found was a very bad decision.

Stumbling to her feet, Anzu made way to continue her walk home but was stopped short when a strong hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to the ground. She let out a cry of pain from the sudden jerking movement and stumbled down to the ground again.

"What do you think you're doing Kaiba!?" Anzu screamed at him while she clutched her stomach again as more tears threatened to spill from her eyes.

"I could be asking you the same question Mazaki!" Kaiba yelled back at her face.

Shocked, Anzu closed her eyes and turned away from him. "Let me go." she said barley above a whisper.

His grip on her wrist loosened before it tightened up again. "Not until you tell me what's wrong." he growled and narrowed his eyes. "We barley run into each other and then you break down in tears after a small fall. That's. Not. _Normal._"

Anzu tried to yank her wrist away, but he wouldn't let go. "It's none of your business!" she exclaimed. _'God, now I'm starting to sound like Bakura.' _

Yanking her wrist towards himself, Kaiba practically pulled Anzu onto his lap before bringing her face _extremely_ close to his. "It _is_ my business now!"

Anzu looked down, not knowing what to do or even think for the matter. "M-my stomach hurts really bad okay. Now just leave me alone." she said as she tried to get up again.

"No." Kaiba said as she pulled her down once again, this time a little more harshly earning a small cry of pain from Anzu. "No one's stomach can, _'hurt really bad'_ to the point of tears." he stated looking at her tear soaked face. "Lift up the your uniform shirt." he demanded suddenly.

"Wha-what? No!" Anzu said trying to back away from him but with no use.

"Just do it Mazaki." Kaiba growled.

Anzu stared at him like he had sprouted another head on his shoulders. When she saw the death glare he was giving her though, she moved to oblige him. '_Okay, it's only Kaiba.'_ Anzu thought as she pulled of her pink blazer. _'He wouldn't do anything like that to me.' _

Lifting up her shirt to just below her bra line, Anzu looked up to see his reaction when she heard him take in a sudden gasp of breath.

"What the **Hell **did you to do to yourself Mazaki!?" Kaiba screamed in her face as he gently reached out to touch her stomach only for her to jerk away.

"Wha-what?" Anzu was startled by his reaction.

"Don't, _'wha-what?'_ me! Look at yourself you moron!" Kaiba screamed in her face as he motioned to her abdomen.

Looking down at herself, Anzu gasped, which earned another sharp-jabbing pain. All over her stomach were several very large, very dark bruises. Gingerly, she gently stroked her stomach but quickly pulled her hand back as a large wave of pain, larger than the rest, washed through her once again.

"Ahhh!" she groaned as she let go of her shirt and fell forward only for her head collided with Kaiba's chest.

"Get a hold of yourself Mazaki!" Kaiba yelled as he gripped both of her shoulders to hold her up.

"I...can't...breath..." Anzu gasped through short painful breaths as she grasped at her chest.

"Mazaki! Mazaki! Wake up! Dammit! Anzu!" was all she heard before her would was closed in by dark.

--

**A/N: **And there's the second chapter. Like I said, I would have probably posted this up a lot sooner, but alas no internet does that to some people. So this chapter is going to be a bit late, sorry for the long wait. Blah, well at least I finally got around to adding in a SetoxAnzu moment into this story. So what's next? Even I don't really know at the moment.

Until next time!

Makarios 


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of it's characters.

**Author:** Makarios

**Title:** In Between

**Summary:** Fate has a funny way of messing with Anzu's life. With a pair of distant and unconcerning parents going away on a business trip, Anzu find herself stuck with an older tyrannical cousin who wants nothing to do with her. On top of all of that, she's balancing school, work, and dance lessons when she slowly begins to realize that she's caught between two, or should she say three? men. What's a girl to do?

**A/N:** Ehehehe. I'm sorry to admit it, but I didn't really start this chapter right after I posted the third one. I decided that I needed to take a break for a little bit and get my schooling under control first (which still hasn't really happened). I also kinda lost my train of thought on what to do about this chapter too. I had an idea in mind, buuuuut it got away from me. So this one took a bit longer than I thought it would. And as always a thanks goes out to the reviews I got from **DarkXSpades**, **t recorder**, **Rikkamaru** and **Minou1992**(haha, yup it's the same Ichigo. I'm just really bad at picking names, so I just borrowed his.)! Now here's the next chapter.

Enjoy.

--

"What the **Hell** did you to do to yourself Mazaki!?" Kaiba screamed in her face as he gently reached out to touch her stomach only for her to jerk away.

"Wha-what?" Anzu was startled by his reaction.

"Don't, 'wha-what?' me! Look at yourself you moron!" Kaiba screamed in her face as he motioned to her abdomen.

Looking down at herself, Anzu gasped, which earned another sharp-jabbing pain. All over her stomach were several very large, very dark bruises. Gingerly, she gently stroked her stomach but quickly pulled her hand back as a large wave of pain, larger than the rest, washed through her once again.

"Ahhh!" she groaned as she let go of her shirt and fell forward only for her head collided with Kaiba's chest.

"Get a hold of yourself Mazaki!" Kaiba yelled as he gripped both of her shoulders to hold her up.

"I...can't...breath..." Anzu gasped through short painful breaths as she grasped at her chest.

"Mazaki! Mazaki! Wake up! Dammit! Anzu!" was all she heard before her would was closed in by dark.

--

_'It's so dark.' _Anzu thought as she drifted; just wandering in nothingness. _'Why is it so dark? Where am I?'_

"Hello?" she called out only to hear her own voice to be echoed back.

She turned, thinking that she heard something, only to find nothing to be there. Nothing. Just darkness.

And then she noticed it. Her back was turned when the tiny, but bright light flowed over her body to illuminate the area around her. Anzu turned, holding a hand up above her eyes to cover them intense light and began to walk towards it. Walking turned to running, and Anzu sprinted forward towards the light, not caring where it took her as long as it was away from this darkness. She just wanted out.

Closer and closer she came until finally, the tiny little light blinded everything in it's reach.

--

Her eyes slowly fluttered open, and Anzu tried to focus her eyes in on her surroundings only to close them tightly again. Everything was so fuzzy. Everything was so hazy. But most of all, Anzu realized, everything hurt. She groaned deeply and brought the backside of her hand to lay across her eyes and took a few deep breaths. Still a little dizzy, Anzu let her hand flop back down to her side and attempted to open her eyes again.

At first, all she saw was doubles of everything. Slowly, the twins began to merge into one and Anzu was finally able to get a good look around of where she was.

_'This isn't my apartment, that's for sure.'_ Anzu thought as eyes examined her surroundings.

As she sat up, the first thing she noticed was that she was in a bed, a very lavish bed. Looking around she realized that the carpet of the extremely large room that she was in was a deep rich maroon color. All the furniture in the room looked to be made from a cherry or cyprus wood, both of which Anzu knew very expensive because of her parent's own exquisite tastes.

_'Where am I?' _she thought as she continued to look about the room while she brought her hand up to scratch the back of her head.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" she winced as she recoiled and brought her hand down to her side.

That's when she noticed that she wasn't in her school uniform anymore but was instead in an overly large t-shirt and pair plaid pajama pants. Blushing madly at the thought of someone undressing her, Anzu pushed the thought aside and lifted up the t-shirt to only to see that her mid-section was tightly wrapped in bandages.

"Hmmm? I wonder who did this?" she questioned herself.

"You'd best not touch the area around you stomach for a while. " a voice cut through the silence.

Anzu's head whipped around to find the source of the voice and looked over to see none other than Seto Kaiba standing in the doorway to the bedroom with his arm's crossed over his chest while leaning against the frame of the door.

Anzu blushed and looked away from him as she let go of the shirt. _'Well I guess I know where I am now.' _

"I think a 'thank you' should be in order." Seto said breaking Anzu from her thoughts.

"Ahhh, ummm, thank you." Anzu said turning away from Kaiba so he couldn't see the blush on her cheeks. Coughing quickly to cover up her embarrassment, she turned back to Kaiba and said, "Ummm, why am I here?"

"Tch." Kaiba glared at her. "You collapsed last night." he explained. "You're an idiot for running around with those wounds on you're stomach. You're just lucky I was around when it happened too." his voice slowly becoming louder as he uncrossed his arms and pointed an accusing finger at her. "You have three severely bruised ribs. You mind explaining to me how that happened?"

"Uhhh, ummm, so why did you bring me here instead of the hospital?" Anzu asked nervously.

Kaiba's glare intensified. "I wouldn't trust any of those lackies at the local hospital that call themselves doctors. I have the best doctors that Domino has. Now _don't_ try and change the subject." he said stepping forward.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." she stuttered and looked away.

"The Hell if you don't." he growled striding forward.

"Wh-what are you doing?" she stammered as Kaiba strode over and suddenly grabbed her arm. "Ow! What do you think you're doing Kaiba?!"

"You're going to tell me how this happened to you and you're going to tell me _now_." emphasized the last part by tightening his grip on her arm.

"Why do you suddenly care so much?" she winced at the strength of his grasp.

"That's beside the point." he said as his gaze momentarily looked away before it quickly flickered back towards her. "I think you're forgetting who I am Mazaki." he said staring her directly in the eyes. "I'm Seto Kaiba. And whatever I want, _I get_." he said as he yanked her closer to his face.

"Anzu! You're awake!"

The two teenagers looked over to see who the new voice belonged to and Anzu saw that it was only Mokuba.

Kaiba reluctantly let go of Anzu to make room so Mokuba could come over and greet her. _'She's not gonna get off the hook that easily.'_ Kaiba thought as he backed away from the bed.

"Are you okay Anzu?" Mokuba asked while he hopped onto the bed. "Big brother came home a little late last night and when I ran to the limo to go see him, he was carrying you in his arms!"

At hearing this, Anzu looked up at Kaiba to only see him looking away from the two.

"I asked Seto what was wrong with you, but he just said that you were really hurt and that you needed to get some rest." Mokuba informed her. "Your clothes were kinda dirty too and since you were unconscious at the time, Seto ordered the maids to change your clothes into some old pajamas that Seto had since mine are all too small for you to wear."

Anzu blushed at the thought of wearing some of Kaiba's old clothes but then laughed it off before patting the younger boy on the head. "Don't worry Mokuba, I'm fine now. There's nothing to worry about." she reassured. "Actually I think I'm well enough to go home now." she said.

"Awww, I don't want you to go home yet. Can't you stay here for a bit longer?" the younger Kaiba brother pleaded.

"I'm afraid not kiddo. I have some things at home that I need to take care of." she replied.

"Awww."

"Mokuba." Seto cut in on their conversation. "Go downstairs and tell the driver to get the limo ready for Mazaki."

"Alright." Mokuba grumbled as he got off of the bed and walked out of the room.

Kaiba's gaze quickly cut over to Anzu. "Don't think that you're getting off so easily Mazaki." he said as he walked towards the door to the room. "I'm not going to let the subject drop quite yet." was all he commented before he walked out of the room shutting the door briskly behind him.

--

It was a bit awkward, Anzu remembered, as the driver to Kaiba's limo made his way to Anzu's parent's house. She had to make up some lame excuse to the driver a block away from her old home saying that she needed to stop at a nearby store to pick up a few items that she forgot to get yesterday. The driver kindly offered to take Anzu to the store, but when she was going to decline the offer, the driver said that Kaiba would kill him if he didn't make sure that she got home safetly.

Confused at the turn of events and Kaiba's sudden concern, Anzu accepted the offer with the exception that she could take the bus home, which of course she didn't plan to do. She just didn't want Kaiba to know that she wasn't exactly living in her parent's home anymore.

So here she was, walking home on a Saturday afternoon, completely confused at the situation that had just happened.

_'I wonder what that was all about?'_ she mentally asked herself as she walked back to her apartment.

"Anzu!" a voice suddenly called out to the said person, jarring her from her thoughts.

Anzu turned around quickly to search for the source of the voice when her eyes landed on the form of Ryou jogging towards her through the crowds of people. _'Oh no! I don't want Ryou to find out this is where I live!'_ Anzu frantically thought as she looked around for some kind of escape route.

Looking back to where Ryou was coming from, Anzu decided that she had no choice. She didn't want Ryou, or anyone else for the matter, to find out about her situation, so she did the only thing she could think of.

She ran.

_'Stupid, stupid Ruka!' _Anzu thought as she manuvered her way down the sidewalk and through all the people. _'If it wasn't for her, I could probably out run Ryou easily!'_

Figuring that she probably couldn't get away from Ryou in her current state, Anzu quickly came up with a plan. Ducking down in the crowds of people, she figured that Ryou would realize that he lost her and would give up his pursuit. But just to be careful, Anzu quickly took the first chance she qot, and dove out of the crowds of people into a nearby restaurant and sat down in a booth at the end of the restaurant with her back to the door.

Not wanting to look suspicious, Anzu picked up the menu and tried to look like she was going to order something. A few minutes later, after she thought that it was probably safe that say that Ryou had given up his chase, Anzu set down the menu only to be shocked to see someone setting across from her.

"Hello my dear." Bakura said with a feral grin on his face.

"_Bakura_." Anzu hissed trying not to attract any attention.

"The one and only." he said smirking from the other side of the booth. "Now tell me. What made you decide to run away from poor old, slow-poke Ryou hmmm? We're quite curious to know as to why you suddenly took off."

_'We're?'_ Anzu sucked in a quick breath of air. "Nothing that concerns you, that's for sure."

"Oh, what was it you said to me that last time we met? _'It is my business when it invovles my friends.'_ was it?"

"That's not- you're not my friend Bakura." she smiled as one of the waiters walked past their booth.

"Not indirectly maybe. But you are frinds with Ryou, and Ryou is my light, which is what you would call my other half, so therefore we are one in the same person. You must remember my dear that it takes two halves to make a whole." he informed her.

Anzu stared him hard in the face wishing that she could burn a hole through is head as he calmly stared back at her with smirk plastered across his own features.

_'There's no way that I'm going to tell Bakura about what's happening to me. But I seriously doubt that he's going to let me go without telling him anything either.'_ Anzu pondered in her mind.

"Fine." she said finally caving in. "I'll tell you what's happening to me under one condition."

He arched an eyebrow and leaned in, "And that would be...?" he prompted for her to continue.

"I'll only tell it to Ryou." she stated.

Bakura glared at her fiercly before sitting back into the booth. There was a quick flash of light and before Anzu knew it, Ryou was sitting across from her. She could instantly tell the difference between the two for Ryou's features were much softer and contrasted quite a bit from Bakura's own hard looks.

_'Funny that I can tell the two so easily apart when Yugi and others have such a hard time with it.' _Anzu off handedly thought.

"So Anzu," Ryou began; dragging her from her thoughts, "why _did_ you run away from me as soon as I called out your name? If you don't mind me saying, you looked quite panicked."

"I'll tell you, but first," she said as the waitress came over to take their orders, "let's get something to eat. My treat."

--

"So that's why you missed school that day." Ryou said as the two walked through the neighborhood that Anzu now lived in.

It was now late at night, and once Ryou had heard the full story, he refused to let Anzu walk home alone. He knew what that neighborhood was like, mostly because of Bakura, and he didn't like the thought of Anzu walking alone at night in this area. Too many gangs and thugs lived around here. It wasn't exactly the perfect place for a high school girl to walk home through every night. Ryou mentally shuddered at the thought of could have happened to Anzu when he wasn't with her.

_'And on top of all of that some of her ribs are bruised too. She's pushing herself way to much.'_ Ryou thought as he watched Anzu from the corner of his eye.

**'Brave girl for living in this area by herself.'** Bakura commented to Ryou from their soul room.

"So this is it." Anzu said as she and Ryou stopped across the street from her apartment complex. "This is where I'm living now." she gestured to the fairly tall building.

_'At least it doesn't have any broken windows.'_ Ryou thought as his eyes scaled the building.

Anzu sighed not knowing what to do now. So far, Ryou (and Bakura) were the only ones who knew about her situation. Before leaving the restaurant that they had ate at, Anzu made Ryou swear that he wouldn't tell anyone else, especially Yugi, Joey and Tristian, about what she was going through.

She sighed again, and looked up at the building. "Well, I guess this is goodnight." Anzu said as she started to cross the street.

She was surprised, to say the least, when Ryou sped up to keep pace with her. Anzu gave him a look as if to say, 'what do you think you're doing?'

Feeling a pair of eyes on him, Ryou looked over to Anzu. "You heard what I said earlier Anzu. I'm going to walk home, and that means the entire way." he said with a genuine smile on his face.

Anzu blushed deeply. "Ahhh, thank you Ryou."

_'I can't believe I'm blushing!'_ Anzu mentally screamed. _'It's just Ryou.'_

So the two walked silently, side by side, up to Anzu's apartment. They passed by the front desk, where Ichigo was sitting as usual, reading his newspaper. Anzu said a kind hello to him, only for him to fold the paper to see who it was, take a quick look at Ryou, raise an eyebrow and then grunt, before turning back to his paper once more.

Ryou looked at Anzu with a questioning look on his face but she just smiled and shurgged it off.

Finally after two flights of stairs, and Anzu explaining to Ryou about Ichigo, the two finally arrived at the door to her apartment.

"Well, I guess _this_ is goodbye for tonight." Anzu said as she stopped in front of her door and turned to Ryou.

Jumbling through her own pockets, Anzu pulled out the key to her apartment and was about to put it into the the lock when she heard something move from inside her apartment.

"Anzu?" Ryou questioned as he saw that Anzu stopped moving.

"Shhhh!" Anzu hushed him as she put her ear to the door.

There was nothing at first. And Anzu just thought that it was her mind playing tricks on her. As she went to pull away, it was there, she heard it one more time. A voice.

Gasping and backing up quickly, Anzu turned to Ryou with a frightened look on her face.

"Anzu-" Ryou was quickly cut off when Anzu grabbed his arm and pulled him around the corner that lead to the stair case.

"Ryou." Anzu breathed heavily. "I think there's someone in my apartment."

--

**A/N:** Dun dun dun! Cliffy! Haha! Bwahahah, I proud of myself for working on this one. I actually busted this out this morning and told myself that I was going to get the chapter done today. I do admit though, that I had to take _quite a few _breaks because I had several brain shut-downs on what to write, but I got it done! Oh, and I wanted to make it clear that from now on, the bold writing like this, **'example'**,is going to be Bakura talking to Ryou from their soul room or vise versa. So please read and review!

Until next time!

Makarios


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of it's characters.

**Author:** The15thDoor

**Title:** In Between

**Summary:** Fate has a funny way of messing with Anzu's life. With a pair of distant and unconcerning parents going away on a business trip, Anzu find herself stuck with an older tyrannical cousin who wants nothing to do with her. On top of all of that, she's balancing school, work, and dance lessons when she slowly begins to realize that she's caught between two, or should she say three? men. What's a girl to do?

**A/N:** So I finally got around to typing up this chapter. XP I was feeling a bit lazy on this one and just wanted to let it sit and stew for a while to see how many hits and reviews I would get on this one. So, sorry for this one being a bit later than all the other chapters. Well that's all I've got to say for now. Thanks again, **DarkXSpades**, **Nightfall2525**, and **Minou1992** for the reviews

Enjoy.

--

"Anzu?" Ryou questioned as he saw that Anzu had stopped moving.

"Shhhh!" Anzu hushed him as she put her ear to the door.

There was nothing at first. And Anzu just thought that it was her mind playing tricks on her. As she went to pull away, it was there, she heard it one more time. A voice.

Gasping and backing up quickly, Anzu turned to Ryou with a frightened look on her face.

"Anzu-" Ryou was quickly cut off when Anzu grabbed his arm and pulled him around the corner that lead to the stair case.

"Ryou." Anzu breathed heavily. "I think there's someone in my apartment."

--

_'What the Hell am I going to do now?!'_ Anzu mentally groaned at the thought of some nameless person inside her apartment and going through all her belongings.

"We have to call the police." Anzu said as she peeked around the corner to look at her apartment door. "Come on Ryou let's --" she stopped short when she noticed that Ryou was no longer standing beside her.

Quickly searching her left and right, Anzu looked around the corner and saw that Ryou was at the door to her apartment with his ear pressed to it's surface. "Ryou!" Anzu quietly hissed. "What do you think you're doing?!"

Anzu watched as Ryou backed away from the door and then walked back over to where Anzu was standing. "There is definetly someone in there alright." Ryou said looking at her. "Anzu, give me the key to the door."

"Wha-what? Ryou no way! You're not going in there!" Anzu exclaimed.

"Anzu." Ryou began sternly. "Either you give me the key, I take the key from you, or I break your door down."

_'He's been around Bakura for too long.' _Anzu thought as she held Ryou's gaze for a moment. "Ohhhh," she groaned as she handed him the key, "just be careful."

"Of course." he said was a small smile. "Don't forget who shares this body with me." he said before he winked causing her to blush deeply.

Shaking her head and briskly slapping her cheeks, Anzu peeked around the corner and watched as Ryou placed the key in the lock to her door. He looked over at Anzu one more time, gave her a thumbs up, and then quickly opened the door before rushing into the apartment.

For a few minutes, it was silent and Anzu wondered if there really was anyone in her apartment or not. As she crept around the corner and inched closer to the still open door to her home, Anzu strained her ears to hear what was happening inside. As she came closer, she could slightly hear sounds. The closer she came to the door, the more apparent of sounds of scuffling could be clearly heard.

With her back to the wall, Anzu slid closer to her door and attempted to peek her head inside only the yank it back as a body suddenly came flying through the door and crashing in to the opposite wall. Anzu gasped and held her breath, not wanting to attract any attention to herself as she realized that the person who came flying out of her room was no one that she knew. The man in question looked up when he heard Anzu's gasp and reached a hand out to grab her. Anzu shrieked and clenched her eyes shut as she tried to shrink back into the wall. With her eyes closed, she heard a grunting sound coming from the direction that man was at and opened her eyes to see what had happened.

"Don't you dare touch her." Bakura growled as he grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt and threw him back into the wall.

Sensing a pair of eyes watching, Bakura turned around and darkly smirked at Anzu before turning around and going back into the apartment.

Anzu was huffing now, shocked and afraid of what was happening. Calming herself down, she looked over at the man's body and realized that he fell unconscious from Bakura throwing him so harshly into the wall. Anzu fell back, surprised again, when another body came flying out of the apartment and landing right on top of the unconscious man.

"Best take your friend and get out of here." Bakura said as he walked out of the room and stood in front of Anzu. "And be sure that you tell everyone that if they ever come to this place ever again, you'll be dealing with _me_." he thrust his thumb at his chest to emphasize the point.

The man nodded dumbly, and from behind Bakura, Anzu could see that his face was badly beaten up and signs of swelling and bruising were already beginning to appear. The man stumbled to his feet, and hoisted his partner's arm across his shoulders and dragged him away down the hallway as fast as he could.

Anzu sat there, numb, from the transaction that she just witnessed. Why? Why was this happening to her? Isn't her life messed up enough as it was?

"Anzu?"

Her eyes snapped away from the spot on the ground that she was staring at and looked over to see that it was no longer Bakura in control of the body, but Ryou instead, as he kneed in front of her.

"R-Ryou." she stammered as the realization of what had happened finally hit her full force, and tears began to well up in her eyes.

"There, there." he said as he took her into his arms and held her tightly. "It's alright now. Don't worry."

_'I don't want this anymore.' _Anzu thought as she cried in Ryou's arms. _'I want mom and dad. I want to go home. I'm not ready for this yet.' _

All the time, Ryou sat patiently and let her cry in his arms. He calmly rocked her back and forth and rubbed soothing circles on her back in an attempt to calm her down.

A few minutes later, Anzu calmed down a bit and gathered her wit about her before sitting back on her legs and looking at Ryou. "T-thank you Ryou." she said as she sniffed and tried to rub the tears from her eyes.

"Any time." he said as he looked at her gently. "Will you be alright for the night?"

Anzu looked back up at him before she looked over to the door of her apartment and tried to keep down the knot in her throat as tears started to well up in her eyes again.

"I'm taking that as a no." Ryou gently laughed. "Come on." he began as her grabbed her arms and helped her to her feet. "Let's go inside."

Making sure that she was steady enough to stand on her own, Ryou let go of her arms and silently grabbed her hand and gently pulled her along as he lead them into her apartment.

It was at that moment that Anzu realized that nothing had really changed inside her apartment despite the fact that two strangers had just broken in and a small brawl had ensued. The only thing that was out of order, were her two suitcases; the contents of which were scattered around everywhere. Anzu silently praised herself for depositing all the money her parents gave when she took her last break at work.

She laughed lightly and quietly walked over to the two cases and proceeded to put their contents back in order. It was quite, and Anzu hardly noticed when Ryou came over and began to help her with her work.

"So this is where you're staying." Ryou said trying to make light of the situation.

"Yeah." Anzu replied as she folded her clothes and put them back into the suit case.

"Where do you sleep?" Ryou said as he tried to keep her mind preoccupied.

"Oh, ummm, well as you can see, I don't really have that much yet, so I just grab a blanket and sleep on the floor for now." she told him.

"Really?" he laughed a little.

"Hey, it's not that funny." she said, her mood lightening up a bit.

"If you say so." he said jokingly.

Anzu picked up one of her nearby pillows and threw it at him. Seeing the shock on his face, Anzu began to laugh and Ryou joined in soon too. The two of them just sat there laughing with each other; not a care in the world at that single moment.

Giggling slightly, Anzu said, "Thank you again Ryou. For everything."

"Don't worry about it Anzu." he said as his own face began to flush. "Well I guess everything is in order now." he said as he looked around the small apartment.

"Looks like it." she said quietly.

It became quite again, and Ryou silently watched Anzu as she tried to smooth the creases out of her skirt.

_'She still looks like she's about to fall apart.'_ he thought as he continued to stare at her.

"Anzu-"

"Ryou-" the two started at the same time.

"Go ahead." Ryou said.

"No, no. You first." Anzu smiled.

"Alright." Ryou chuckled. "Anzu, would you like me to stay here with you tonight?" he asked.

"Ah hah." she laughed and scratched the back of her head. "I was just about to ask you the same thing." she said bashfully.

"It settled then." he said with a small smile.

Feeling the heat rushing to her face again, Anzu turned away. "Well ahh, here." she said as she grabbed a pillow and set it on the ground. "You can use this one and I'll just use this other one. I'm sorry to say though that I only have one blanket."

"That's quite alright. You should use it though. This is your apartment after all." he said.

"No, no, no. You're my guest, so you use it."

Bakura chuckled. _'She's so stubborn.'_

**'Just make the damn woman lay down.'** Bakura mentally grumbled to Ryou. **'I wold like to get some sleep sometime this millineum.'**

_'And how am I to do that?' _ Ryou asked back.

**'Shut up and watch you fool.'** Bakura said.

Switching places so he was in control, Bakura grabbed his pillow and threw it beside Anzu's. Grabbing her arm, Bakura yanked her down to the ground before grabbing the blanket and proceeding to throw it over both of their bodies.

"R-Ryou?" Anzu asked surprised as Bakura's arm slid around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

"Shut up and go to sleep you insufferable woman." Bakura grumbled into her hair.

_'Bakura.'_ Anzu suddenly realized.

But despite the thought that she was laying next to a anciet Egyptian tomb robber, Anzu couldn't stop her eyes from drooping shut until finally, she let sleep consume her.

--

Eyes fluttered open, and Anzu looked over at the pillow that lay beside her head to see that it was empty and her guest was nowhere to be seen.

_'That's to be expected from Bakura.'_ Anzu sleepily thought.

Sighing she rolled over into the light that came in from the small living room window and let her eyes close brifely before she was ready to get up.

After a few moments of quite, and deciding that she couldn't will herself back to sleep anymore, Anzu sat up from where she lay and stretched briefly. Yawning, she brought her wrist up and checked the time on her watch and realized that she had woken up with enough time to take a quick shower before she had to catch the city bus that would take her to school.

Sitting up on her knees, Anzu grabbed one of her suitcases and dragged it over to where she was sitting. Opening it up, she dug through it's contents before she found her uniform. Standing up, she stretched one last time before she made her way over to her bathroom.

--

Later that day, Anzu found herself browsing through the shelves upon shelves of books that were in her school's library.

It had been a hassle when she arrived at school earlier this morning, Anzu remembered. As soon as she stepped on the school grounds, she was instantly surrounded by Yugi, Joey and Tristian whom immediately hounded her on where she was over this last weekend and how come she didn't answer her cell phone at all.

Instantly making up the excuse that her phone battery had died and she was busy with work, the boys dropped the subject and continued on with whatever they were talking about before Anzu had arrived.

Finally choosing a book that had caught her interest, Anzu plucked it from the shelf and went to sit down over at a nearby table. She was thankful for times like these, when she found that her class schedule had a break for study hall when the others found themselves stuck in math class.

_'I wonder where Ryou is...' _Anzu thought as she absentmindedly flipped the pages of her book. _'Bakura probably made Ryou stay out or something. I don't really know...'_

The sound of the chair opposite of her scraping across the floor drove Anzu from her thoughts. Looking up, her face went pale at the sight of the person now sitting across from her.

"I think it's about time that you answer a few of my questions Mazaki." Kaiba smirked at her surprised features. "And don't think you're going to get away from me this time."

--

**A/N:** Ack! This chapter was a painful one for me to type up. Countdown to the Comet started this week, and I temporarily lost sight of this fic. But need not worry, I'm still working on it diligently. I intend very much to complete this fic, it's just a matter of time. Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did. And i LOVE reviews, I'm just throwing that out there.

Until next time!

The15thDoor


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